Dublin 2018: Solidarity with Refugee Families

In Dublin, Ireland, where thousands of families are gathered for the World Meeting of Families (August 21-26, 2018), the Vatican pleaded once again for refugees.

Father Michael Czerny, Under-Secretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, called for “a Christian response” to the reality “of not having a place to lay one’s head,” which is true for numerous refugee families who feel rejected and defenseless today.

Speaking with a working group on August 22, the Jesuit pointed out that “to not have a roof” can’t be what is normal. “And as Christians we can’t consider this abnormality as bad luck . . . we have a clear duty: the Church is called to accompany forced migrants and refugees during their entire voyage, from the terribly difficult decision to flee, to the journey and the arrival full of anguish, to the struggle for integration and, perhaps, the other difficult decision to return to their land.”

“We are called to welcome, protect, promote and integrate vulnerable families, he stressed, as reported by L’Osservatore Romano.

Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, the Dicastery’s Prefect, intervened as well, speaking about the work as an “expression of every man’s dignity.” He appealed to contractors to “satisfy the needs of humanity with true goods, with the really necessary services, without forgetting the needs of the poor, in a spirit of solidarity,” he added, and a “durable creation of wealth, as well as its just distribution.”